Hey, just what we need, another campaign log for Tyranny of Dragons, right!?
Rubick Folkor - Gnome Wizard, Sage (Librarian)
Koven Mishan Daarshidian - Dragonborn Barbarian, Outlander (Tribal nomad)
Daichot - Tiefling Paladin, Squire (Urchin)
Rhallick - Half-Elf Rogue, Criminal (Hired Killer)
Aligheri - Half-Elf Rogue, Entertainer (Jester)
Sounds good, I look forward to reading more!
SESSION TWO UPDATE: PLAYERS--STAY OUT OF THIS THREAD
So a new player joined the party this session: Hadrian Al'sorna, a human monk outlander (noble birth).
After dismantling the barrier, the party returned to the river and followed it east towards the Sanctuary. When they got close they sent the rogues ahead to scout--and the pair of them easily snuck up to the low outer wall of the church and saw two cultists piling burning hay against the banded double doors at the back of the church, and seven kobolds guarding them and peeking in the narrow church windows. One of the kobolds was killed by a blade stabbing out the window (the monk--setting up his meeting). They waited for a moment and saw a roving patrol along the wall coming, three more cultists, ten kobolds, and an ambush drake. They decided to wait them out and noticed their pace (2 minutes per side of the church) then returned to the party.
The players probably spent 20 minutes before actually taking a decisive action, but we were all passing around snacks and talking about other stuff as well while I was sorting through a pile of minis behind my new GM screen, Ultimate GM Screen II by Fat Dragon Games.
So the party finally went up the slope to the back of the church, waited for the patrol to pass (giving them 4-6 minutes), then hurdled the wall and started their plan. The wizard used silent image to project a group of three refugees slipping out from the shadows of the church and fleeing with golden chalices and coffers of gold coins, guessing that's why the cultists were attacking the church based on all the looting they had seen so far. The tiefling added sound to the illusion with thaumaturgy, and the cultists bought it, ordering the kobolds to catch them while they continued with the door. As soon as the kobolds chased after them though, the monk inside opened the doors and came flying out, quickly dispatching one of the cultists with his short sword and martial arts attacks. The other cultist was quickly defeated as well, though left alive as a shout from the paladin to keep him alive led to the monk punching him out cold.
As the monk had been trying to organize the refugees to get ready to flee, they were all ready to go, and quickly fled south to the stream. They closed the double doors and piled the burning hay back up against it as well, to delay how long it would take the cultists to realize they were gone. Upon getting back to the keep, the interrogation didn't get them a lot of information as the cultist was zealously loyal--but they did get a line about "building a hoard for the coming of the Dragon Queen" and also tricked him into revealing there were dragon eggs at the cultists' raiding camp. The group used this time to rest, make introductions with the monk, and then Castellan the Red (master of the keep) came looking for them.
He started to tell them that it looked like the Mill was under attack, but then I decided to run the Sally Port while they were at the keep already, so horns blared and the dwarf ran up the steps. The first wave of attackers from the Sally Port went down quickly, except for the ambush drake, which managed to surprise the monk and drop him with one attack (missed instant death by 1 HP)--note Hadrian rolled a 1 to spot the drake sneaking on the upper paraphet. I knew the party was pretty spent so I added the drake late in the third round of fighting.
They used their last potion of healing on the monk before the second wave, and just took up stations around the gate (Aligheri and Rubick up on the walls now) and turned the gate into a murderhole for the second wave. There was no surprise round, but they slaughtered the next group, with Rhallick taking a major wound. This was the introduction of the first Acolyte they encountered as well (he hit Rubick with a Sacred Flame--described as the same cataclysmic torrent of elements from his dreams). Rubick asked specifically if the acolyte had any special documents, and it seemed like an insightful assumption, so she had a map detailing their "man on the inside" in the corner, plus a potion of healing. They gave the potion to Rhallick and then asked about the mill.
So without rest (most of them have no hit dice) they set out for the mill to stop it from being burned down. They blow their attempt at stealth (three 1s were rolled, four failed checks) so the cultists know they are coming. The high Insight characters noticed right away that it was a pretty half-hearted attempt to set a wooden building on fire--more like trying to keep it burning without damaging it too badly. They suspected a trap right away, but they were also spotted, so a fight was starting now. There was an acolyte and three guards outside, plus a cultist and six guards inside (the inner guards up on the loft/catwalk of the mill.
One guard dropped right away, and the acolyte died to ranged attacks, but not before landing a FLEE! Command on Rubick, sending him scrambling back into the woods for the next turn. The other two guards ran inside the mill, drawing them into the ambush. Aligheri snuck up the outer staircase to the second floor, and saw the ambush waiting for them--everyone else snuck up the stairs, except for Daichot and Khoven (heavy armor) who moved to the front door--Daichot hoisting up the acolyte over his shoulder as a human shield, intending to toss the body into the room. I figured the guards heard the heavy armor and expected them to come in the front door. Looking good for the party, right?
They decide to wait for Rubick before acting. Moving 50 feet per round the wrong way, then 50ft back, then needing to join them, three rounds passed. So the guards start getting antsy, and the upper guards spot the players out a window on the stairs, ruining the surprise round, which probably would have made the battle a near route. But instead it was a bloody and pitched battle--the dragonborn barbarian was knocked to 0, Daichot had 1 HP left, and everyone was below half-health when we finished the session. However when there were only two guards still standing, Daichot reasoned for the mercenaries to surrender (23 on Persuasion) so they dropped their weapons. There were four players left to act before the guards so they weren't going to do anymore damage--so more prisoners.
Our campaign forums are pretty cool right now, with them all speculating as to who the ambush was for--half think it was a trap specifically for them, the other half aren't sure about that, thinking they were just trying to make a distraction. Of course it WAS to trap the players, as the leader has gotten reports of adventurers and tried to stop them once and for all.
Now the players are just SPENT. I think only one of them even has a hit die left to spend (the monk). We've actually done every encounter now (I wasn't planning on doing every mission, but as they got through each one pretty handily I just kept doing them to keep it feeling desperate. The only thing that hasn't happened is the dragon attack (which I will be doing) and the final challenge from Cyanwrath (which will also happen). I've basically given them three potions of healing now, and I don't plan on giving them another. They should be able to drive the dragon off before they start suffering attacks themselves, so I'm not worried about that one (or they might just hide), but I'd like one of them to be full health for Cyanwrath. I have a feeling the monk will be the one to step up for that fight, actually.
I'm so excited for the third session--but it's TWO WEEKS away. Oh my god I'm just dying inside right now with the anticipation.
Played from 11:30 to 3:30--so in four hours I feel like they got a LOT done, considering a food break and a LOT of non-game talk was in there, as well!
Thanks for this! It's great to read about a group that takes interest in role-playing. I particularly liked how they helped the family in the first scene.
I'm going to be running this for our first 5e game tomorrow, and seeing the real-time pace of your group gives me a feel for how much of the adventure I need to be prepared for. A huge help in my time-deprived life.
I look forward to reading more.
Next session is tomorrow, I'm so excited!
I'm finally starting this adventure as a DM with my group in one week. Glad to read how it went down with yours! I like how the pacing is soooo much faster than with 4e. I love this edition!
Eugee, great write up. I love reading about other games.
Your session went similar to the one I'm playing in.
Do your players feel a sense of fear and excitement as they explore or try to sneak around Greenest? Our group feels like any moment could be our last. In only 3 sessions, we've already had each of the 5 pcs playing go unconscious at some point or another. We are finally up to 2nd level, but we still haven't made it through the first night.
Rhenny wrote:
SESSION THREE
So we set up quickly today at the game room, as we were ready get our D&D on!
I quickly got things rolling, picking right up where we left off. In between sessions, I ret-conned a call I made in the Sally Port fight--the Ambush Drake had advantage when it jumped the monk, but Hadrian was already in battle, so not surprised. That means he would not have dropped, and would not have used their last Potion of Healing. So they started off events by dumping the last potion down the barbarian's throat, bringing him back up to 10 hit points.
Rhallick and Rubick checked the bodies of the dead for valuables and intelligence, while the remainder of the party interrogated the guards, except for Koven, who stood guard, watching for their reinforcements. With a very high Persuasion check from Daichot, the paladin demonstrated the validity of "you get more flies with honey than vinegar". The mercenary, with no real horse in this race (raid) freely gave up everything he knew about the cult. He told them that he was recently hired on (his whole mercenary company was) to hit Greenest, and take the loot back to the base camp. He didn't know where the camp was yet, just knew that they would accompany the cult raiders there. Their orders came straight from Frulam Mondath, the leader of this raid--with news that there were adventurers in the city, helping to defend the keep, and they had turned the tide of key battles already. His squad was sent to the mill with instructions to make a show of setting the structure on fire, to draw the heroes in. They didn't count on ten men not being enough.
They asked him when the raid would be over, and that seemed like a shrewd question to ask, plus they were so spent from all their encounters, so I threw them a bone. He told them that when the cultists were about to leave the city, Lennithon would attack the keep to cover their withdrawal. They had seen the huge blue dragon in the sky as they approached the city, and when Lennithon was described as the biggest, most terrifying creature the guard had ever seen, they made the connection. Torlum (the guard) asked what they would do with the two of them that were still alive, and the heroes said they would take him to the keep--which he reminded them was about to be attacked by a dragon, and pleaded for them to let him go. Around then the reinforcements arrived, and they left the guards with the militiamen and headed back to the castle to warn the govenor and castellan.
Upon returning to the Keep (passing their group stealth check to sneak back in through the tunnel), they finally got to rest for a couple hours. The keep was on full alert, scanning the skies for trouble, every militiaman that could shoot a crossbow or shortbow up on the walls, ready to defend the keep. I gave them two hours rest (and Hadrian used his hit die to heal back up) and then the warhorns sounded the alarm, and Lennithon strafed the castle. There were 25 militiamen, and every time the dragon made a pass, 1d4 died and 1d6 were injured enough to be out of the fight. On the first pass I was very descriptive about those that were killed bursting into blackened chunks as lightning arced through them, and others being knocked from the walls violently, some holding stumps of arms melted off in arc-welded gauntlets.
They all tried ranged attacks, most of them harmlessly scattering off the dragon's natural armor. Aligheri and Rubick were also affected by Frightful Presence and attacking with Disadvantage. Despite this, the first to score a hit was Aligheri (4 damage) followed by Daichot with a javelin (6 damage). The dragon made another pass, blasting apart 3 more guards and injuring 2 more. With another round of attacks, Daichot and Aligheri both managed to score hits again, up to a total of 18 damage to the dragon now. They had no idea that the dragon would leave after taking 24 damage, but had worked out that the dragon wasn't focusing on them and assumed they had till the guards ran out to do some damage. With some inspiring words from the paladin, I went ahead and rolled 4 attacks for the militia, one of them scoring a critical hit and actually wounding the dragon. At this point Koven Rages, rolls Intimidation, and roars at the dragon, intentionally drawing it's attention (with many shaking heads around him awaiting his death) and chucked another javelin, hitting for 11 damage, landing the missile painfully in the dragons cheek. Lennithon shrieked and pulled the javelin free, then hovered in the air for a moment, and flew away. In Draconic it bellowed over the city, "Frulam! I've lost interest in your thieving schemes--consider my obligations fulfilled!" and flew away. (I wanted to give some indication that the dragon had reasons for leaving."
With the dragon fleeing and the cultists leaving the city in all directions, the adventurer's are hailed as heroes while just trying to rest. Then another horn sounds, from outside the walls--and Tawbaw looks grimly out over the walls as they came to investigate. A half-dragon (blue) with a wicked looking polearm was standing at the base of the hill leading up to the keep, about 80 yards away. Behind him were sixteen kobolds, holding blades up to the throats of the Swift family (the ones they had hid in the cellar at the beginning.) The champion (Langdedrosa Cyanwrath) issued a challenge to the keep, demanding one last fight before they left the city, against the best champion the city had to offer. If they did not consent, he would execute the family. Without hesitation, Koven grabbed his battleaxe and marched down the path (as Rubick used Prestidigitation to clean him up). Hadrian started thumping his quarterstaff into the stone in a rhythm and soon the whole keep was following the action, creating an imposing thunder of beats following the dragonborn.
Cyanwrath let all of the family go except for the mother, and promised to release her when the battle ended, regardless of the outcome. Koven dropped a 3 initiative to Lang's 19. The half-dragon just used multi-attack, taking two swings--a natural 1 followed by a natural 20! Koven dodged the first strike only to catch the second strike squarely in the chest. As he fell Cyanwrath struck him one more time for good measure (auto-failed death save), and they turned and left the city. Everyone rushed to the fallen barbarian, quickly stabilizing him with a medicine check. With the cultist's gone, everyone was finally able to rest till morning. With the long rest, the party also increased to level 2.
SESSION THREE, CONTINUED...
After rising in the morning, recovered from the long night, Tarbaw bid the heroes to track the cultists and find their base camp, recovering anything they could, but primarily determining where they went, how many there were, why the attacked, and where they were headed next. The party agreed to go (accepting the promise of 1000 gold pieces upon their return) and headed West, following the tracks of carts and beasts of burden. Before leaving the edge of the city, they were stopped by an injured monk (only an initiate) named Nesim that asked them to look for his master, Leosin--whom Hadrian knew of, and had been coming to Greenest to consult about the Cult of Dragons in the first place.
It was not difficult to find the trail--the wagons hauling the loot back to camp left deep ruts, and they immediately recognized that the beast's tracks were deeper going back to camp than coming from it because of that fact. They spotted smoke in the distance easily, and the monk and rogues scouted ahead to determine the source. Seeing a group of four mercenaries and eight kobolds bickering around a campfire of game hens, they motioned for the rest of the party to join them, and watched them for awhile, debating if they would go around them or try to ambush them. After a few minutes, the kobolds took one of the spits from the fire and headed south away from the humans. Those who spoke draconic heard them complain about being near the stinking humans.
With only four guards now left, they decided to ambush them--walking right up to them before being noticed. In the surprise round, they killed three of them, while the monk knocked the last one out. Again they tried asking questions with Persuasion, and rolled very well a second time. The guard was another mercenary, with very little incentive to risk his neck further to hide anything from the party. He told them that he had not been to the camp yet, having hired on right before raiding Greenest, but he knew there were at least a hundred cultists and kobolds, maybe more. He knew there was a lot of treasure moving to the camp right now. About then the kobolds returned, seeing the party standing over the dead guards, and they fled south, not wanting to fight. This mercenary also asked what they planned to do with them after he had cooperated. They gave him his pack and water, plus one of the cooked hens, and allowed him to keep his dagger. They told him to flee south, and never return to these lands.
For their mercy (especially handing him a weapon to defend himself on the road), he warned them that there would be a rear guard up ahead of them, as they had fallen behind the rearguard and been chewed out for it. Off he went, and they tracked the kobolds for a bit to see if they turned west or not, but it appeared they weren't heading directly back to the camp, if at all (they did not).
Some hours later, they easily spotted the rearguard from a distance, since they were warned. They decided to just walk in like they belonged there; the guard had told them that they could pass for cultists if they just dirtied up a bit and stopped wearing so many robes, as members of high enough rank to warrant regalia were actually rare. So they put a robe on the dragonborn only, and since they weren't sure if gnomes would be uncommon, Koven carried Rubick in a sack! As they got close to the narrow in the pass, they could see 6 cultists, 2 acolytes, and a guard, who stepped out to challenge them. After some Persuasion, they convinced the reargard they were returning from Greenest, and stopped to share a meal with the stragglers. That got them close, till one of the acolytes saw the dragonborn and mistook him for a short half-dragon. Koven challenged the acolyte for daring to question an ally of the Cyanwraths, snuffing the acolyte's protest quickly, and they looked as though they would make it through the rearguard without a fight--till the other acolyte asked why he had golden scales.
Koven shot back an incredulous indignancy that these pale, scaleless idiots had not heard of the tarnished clan, and I even gave him Advantage on his Deception check for such a good story, but his 1 and 3 just weren't able to convince them to buy into the story. Instead, the gnome in the sack whispered it was time to use swords, and initiative was rolled!
Hadrian scrambled up the north hillside (difficult terrain) and dropped one of the acolytes with a flurry of blows, while every other character charged up the south face. Rhallick dispatched the other acolyte with his shortswords, then Aligheri, Daichot, and Koven locked into a melee with the three cultists, killing two of the three quickly. Rubick was left to fight the guard, who through a javelin over the gnome before dodging a returning Ray of Frost from the wizard, who then ducked behind a large boulder, completely out of site. Hadrian was beset upon (by himself) the three remaining cultists on the north hillside, taking a hit from one of them, while the last cultist to the south failed to wound any of the group. In the next turn, Hadrian dropped one cultist, Rubick blasted one with a Ray of Frost, and the party dispatched the last cultist to the south, running down to the guard and quickly dispatching him. Koven ran down the hill, scooping up a dropped javelin, and impaled the frost-covered cultist fighting Hadrian, before the monk finished the last cultist with a devastating blow from his quarterstaff.
Doing a quick job of hiding the bodies, they continued west towards the camp. When they arrived, they passed through the camp with no interference, and spread out a bit (keeping within sight of at least one other party member) to try and gather information. With the lowest Investigation or Persuasion check being a 13, they were able to gather all the information they were looking for, and quite a bit more. The cult is gathering a treasure hoard for the coming of Tiamat, the queen of dragons, who will rule the lands and reward the cult for their efforts. They heard about dragon eggs in the cave, as well as the capture of Leosin. They saw hunters bringing meat to the caves, as well as the other prisoners in the south end of the camp. As nightfall approached, Hadrian failed a DC 5 Charisma (Deception) check, and was recognized by a mercenary who had been at the Sanctuary, and despite some attempts to talk his way out of it, that failed miserably. He surrendered immediately to the five guards surrounding him, but Rhallick saw it unfold, and managed to signal Koven before tailing them.
Hadrian was tied up to a stake right next to Leosin, and the two caught up for a little while till night set in, and the rest of the party put their rescue plan into action. Rubick (having seen a few gnomes around and no longer hiding in a sack) and Koven moved out to the western edges of the upper/human camp. Rubick used Prestigitation to set a few fires among the tents, which would slowly grow out of control, while Koven went farther away to the north, near the edge of the human/kobold division, armed with Rubick's tinker-firestarter, and Aligheri's last flask of oil. Due to some very poor Wisdom (Insight) checks to determine how good his plan was, Koven dumped the whole flask on a wagon of straw for the beasts of burden, pushed it up to a human tent, and lit it with the firestarter. After a small, fiery mushroom cloud rose into the sky, few kobolds saw him, and he dropped a natural 20 for his Deception check as he proclaimed the humans in the tent were spies, the kobolds actually ran in and attacked the flailing, screaming men coming out.
Daichot directed those closer to the prisoners to go and help with the fires, easily making Persuasion and Deception checks to pass himself off as someone with the authority to be ordering people around, while the two rogues slipped up to the two prisoner sites to rescue them. Rhallick went after the two monks, slipping up out of the shadows and executing the guard there quietly, while Aligheri failed his stealth, silouhetted by the fireball behind him right as the guard looked that way. The guard hit him twice in a row unanswered, which is why he didn't call for help--but then his rapier finally struck home, killing the human guard instantly. With both monks and all the prisoners freed, a series of successful stealth checks saw them all out of the camp quietly during the commotion.
The party struck out into the cloudy night quickly, with Hadrian and Aligheri finding decent shelter off of the trail they had followed, and camped for the night. Though there was very little combat during this episode, there is actually a ton of experience for the various objectives in the camp, of which they accomplished almost all of. Not that it matters, as I'm using milestone experience anyway--and they all increased to level 3 after their long rest. The paladin chose the Oath of Vengeance, the barbarian (naturally) followed the Path of Rage, the monk followed The Four Winds, while both rogues selected the Assassin trees. Upon returning to Greenest they returned the few goods they procurred on the way, the governor rewarded them with the gold as promised, as well as what equipment they were able to provide. The blacksmith had a suit of splint mail for the paladin, a breast plate for the barbarian, and the tanner provided studded leather for the rogues. Rubick got a very fancy new hat.
They rested for a day, enjoying their hero's treatment by the population of Greenest, till Tarbaw Nighthill approached them one more time. After recovering from his captivity, Leosin was heading north to Elturel, to find a paladin of Torm to report his findings, and he and the governor both tasked the party with returning to the camp, and monitoring the cultists, in case they made another move.
That's when we ended the session.
OMFG it was such a great session! It was nice to finally finish up the siege of Greenest and move on to the second episode. There wasn't a lot of fighting, but they got a lot done. I feel like everyone got to have some time to be the hero as well, with everyone at some point or another coming up with the next plan, almost all of which had some interesting twists due to good and/or horrible dice rolls.
Out next session will either be next week, or three ****ing weeks from now, because of family coming into town on our next regularly scheduled session. Holy **** I'm having a really hard time waiting for our next game each time!
SESSION FOUR:
So schedules cleared up, family left a day early, and session four ran on schedule!
Since today was going to be the straight up, old school dungeon crawl through the Dragon Hatchery, I scanned the map out of the book, sized out a 5x5 grid, determined how much it needed to be resized for 100 pixel squares, then dropped the image into Campaign Cartographer 3. I resized the image and dropped it on the grid then traced out all the walls in old-school D&D blue with a fractal path. Then I drew a map border around all that, cloned it all and made a multi-poly "cut out style" layer for everything outside the walls. Made a grid, dropped it below the cut-out, and now I only have a grid on the floors. Then added one more layer where I drew in all the sheer drops and stairways. Exported the image and then dropped it into PosteRazer to make a PDF of 8x10 sheets that would print out to 60"x40".
Took two cheap cardboard trifolds ($2 each) and a can of spray adhesive, and quickly glued all the map "tiles" down. Results:
At the table I covered everything with black cardstock so I could pull off sheets as the dungeon was revealed.
So the party ventures into the campsite to find it nearly empty. A brief bit of Investigation revealed that the cultist's had broken down the camp very quickly, and the place was abandoned. They were watching the cave for movement from a distance when the monk (Hadrian) spotted a lone rider coming into the mouth of the camp. As they were all either wearing cult robes or dressed similar to the mercenaries, the scout didn't consider their presence that unusual, more interested in taking his fresh kills in for his pay. They hailed him and spoke a bit, asking where the carcasses went in the cave which drew some suspicion from the rider, but Rhallick (rogue) quickly smoothed that over by paying him more than he was due and saying he would take care of the meat. With that the scout left, uninterested in further interaction.
They picked up the three carcasses and headed for the mouth of the cave, intending to bluff their way past any guards.
However, upon reaching the entrance, the two dragonclaws there didn't immediately attack, but they were already suspicious of so many people arriving at once. Still, after fumbling through a few bluff checks, the rolled initiative and between the rogues, paladin, and barbarian, quickly dropped the guards before they could raise any alarm. The group lit torches, carried by Hadrian and Koven (the two that need torches incidentally) and started to venture deeper into the cavern. Investigating closely along the way. They noted the guards did not have torches on them, and not realizing that getting to the barracks (which were lit) wasn't difficult if you knew where you were going--so they thought perhaps there was another guard with a torch who had run ahead.
The rogues scouted ahead of the party, just ahead of the torchlight, looking for danger as they moved east into the cavern. Aligheri came to a steep dropoff down to a chamber filled with fungi and a natural staircase (failing to detect the sliding stair trap) while Rhallick found a side passage to the southwest and thought he saw a faint light down the tunnel (the barracks). Thus, they fungi trap was never sprung, because they opted to go the other way. They were pretty cramped moving single file down the tunnel, getting to the fork with pretty abysmal stealth rolls, and so the contents of the barracks were alerted to their approach. Having seen the light and hearing some chatter in the chamber, the party wasn't surprised either.
Daichot (tiefling paladin of vengeance) was in front, and bottomed out on initiative. The guards on the other hand, led off the count, with one of them yelling to hold off the intruders then he ran out of sight to the east (to protect Frulam Mondath). In the cramped tunnel it was difficult to get many attacks off, but the 2 guards were dispatched by the paladin and barbarian, with the rogues and wizard getting a few ranged shots despite cover. While Hadrian slipped into the gap as the first guard fell and unleashed his Burning Hands to drop all five of the cultists that stayed to fight. Daichot checked out the emptied treasure room, slaying the sleeping cultist without hesitation ("they are extremists, they can't be reasoned with") and they quickly pressed the attack, moving east after the other guards.
As they burst into the next room, Daichot was again in the lead, parrying an attack from the guard that was waiting to ambush them, and then the rest of the party filed in behind him, quickly spreading into the room and the melee. One cultist was close to the guard trying to assist him, while the other two used Frulam's desk for cover. All of them were quickly overcome in the fighting with almost no injuries given. The last cultist tried to lure the monk across a hole in the floor covered by carpet, but Hadrian easily passed his DEX save and sidestepped the trap, knocking the cultist out.
They pulled the rugs out of the way to find a chute descending 30 feet with a rope ladder hung to the edge of it, and assumed Frulam must have fled down the tunnel. While the brainier types investigated the chamber and looked for clues, Koven (barbarian) did some of his own "sciencing" by dropping a body down the chute, and eventually the other cultist as well, who offered them nothing more than "Tiamat will protect me!" when questioned, right up until his brains were dashed at the bottom. Meanwhile, the more intellectual members found some decent intel and maps, discerning that the treasure hoard the cult amassed was being transported west to the Trade Way, then would be sent north. After some quick strategy discussion as to how to proceed, they decided that they had Frulam on the run and should press the attack.
They descended down the shaft, emerging in the dark corner of the dragon shrine, where Langdedrosa was standing ready with his greatsword (which I described as a sword-blade on a spear-shaft of anime-like proportions), while Frulam was back by the shrine with the berzerkers guarding her from attack. Cyanwrath gave his schpiel about being happy or upset that Koven survived, and then he proclaimed he would remedy the situation. I was expecting a fierce battle, and was not disappointed.
First, I bombed on initiative for both the half-dragon and the cleric, each of them competing for last place, while the berzerkers rolled quite high. Rhallick went first, and with both Koven and Daichot urging everyone to take down the wizard and leave the half-dragon to Koven, he Dashed and got into melee with Frulam, gaining his Sneak Attack damage because of his Assassin specialization. His first hit was a solid one, but didn't bloody her yet. The the berzerkers went, and both engaged Rhallick and dropped him, almost driving him to instant death, but not quite. Then Rubick cast Enlarge on Koven and moved aside, and the rest of the group flooded over to engage Frulam and the berzerkers. Frulam was pretty badly injured in the first round, while one of the berzerkers took a hit from Daichot.
Koven proceeded to open a can o' woop-ass on Langdedrosa. The short version is that the half-dragon was bloodied in the first round before getting a swing, after being on the receiving end of a Rage + Frenzy + Reckless. Much ass was kicked. The half-dragon returned with a lightning breath (only hitting Koven because everyone else was spread out behind them) followed by action surge and ineffectual half-damage greatsword hits. Frulam was in a sticky predicament as well, and cast Spirit Guardians surrounding herself with a swirling cloud of fiendish defenders, and backed away from Aligheri (the only one that could hit her still), getting hit but maintaining her concentration. Before the spirits could kill off Rhallick (unconcious already) Rubick managed to break her concentration with a Chromatic Orb of frost.
Rhallick failed his first save then. With another round of attacks Langdedrosa was dropped. The berzerkers did their job of pressing the attack, and only Aligheri managed to disengage and close with Frulam, though his attack missed (he has pretty terrible luck with the d20), and Frulam fended them off again with a 3rd level Command that froze Hadrian and Aligheri with the order to "Halt!". That left Daichot facing the berzerkers alone, and one dropped him while the other charged at Rubick (the gnome wizard). Luckily the little wizard's Abjuration 9 temp HP were still up so the meager hit of 5 was absorbed by the blow.
Frulam died in the next round to a volley of Magic Missiles while Koven gave a class on How to beat ass, barbarian-style. He just couldn't miss, and he couldn't roll under a 10 on a d12. A couple rounds later, everything hostile was dead, and Hadrian barely got to Rhallick in time to stabilize him (2 death saves failed). With the paladin down they had no healer, nor any potions of healing. While the barbarian and monk stood guard, Aligheri and Rubick examined the chest in the corner, and the rogue didn't find any traps. He was about to pick the lock when Rubick noticed all the holes in the wall (which were an acid cloud trap triggered by picking the lock poorly or moving the chest.
They tore up one of the cultist robes and plugged all the holes, then tried to pick the lock. Meanwhile, Rubick was getting a 15 foot length of rope ready for Rope Trick. Aligheri failed to pick the lock at all, so the trap didn't go off, then Koven just drug the chest over to the Rope Trick so they could deal with it while resting. This set off the trap, but because of the cloth stuffed in the holes, I gave them d4 rounds till the room filled with acid, getting a 2. They just managed to haul the unconcious members (already tied to ropes) into the pocket before the room filled. This actually worked out, because the kobolds in area 8 and 10 thought the party set off the trap and was killed!
Daichot awoke with 10 minutes left on the pocket and 1 HP, and healed up himself and Rhallick before they descended back into the shrine, which smelled acrid, but was no longer harmful. Most of the chests contents were badly damaged, but Rubick said he would use Mending to fix it later. Determining that the dragon eggs would be down deeper, warmer, and not up, they proceeded to room 10 (where the dragon eggs were, actually).
As they entered the room they quickly spotted the eggs, as well as the kobolds across the chamber, and the wooden stairs surrounded by a cage. As the kobolds opened up with fire and glue pots, their attacks completely ineffective, and Daichot moved down the steps to bash open the cage. Rubick bellowed out, informing the kobolds that he had personally slain Frulam and Cyanwrath, and that their efforts were in vain, so they should surrender. That's when the Roper opened it's maw and growled, and the guard drakes stepped out. **** got real then. The kobolds took awhile to die, despite being attacked by both rogues, the wizard, and the barbarian (who breathed fire on them all for 2 damage each). Once they were down though, Rubick, Hadrian, and Koven all were grabbed by the tendrils of the roper and reeled over to it, with Rubick getting mauled down to just a few HP. He pulled his secret book out of the secret pocket of his robes and tossed it to the monk telling him to protect it with his life.
Daichot meanwhile basically did nothing. He couldn't hit anything, and the guard drakes couldn't hit him. He just stood at the base of the stairs (the roper yanked the door off in the first round, but failed to grab Daichot), and missed a lot. The player pointed out that since he was acting as the healer for the party, it didn't leave him the freedom to use his abilities for offense, so for the most part he was just rolling a d20 and passing his turn. I'm not sure I quite agree on the level he's talking, as he has a ton of AC and such, but I could see why he felt pretty one-dimensional this fight.
Aligheri's dice really hated him today, so he stopped trying to hit the Roper's 20 AC and went for the guard drakes, inflicting some solid hits. Then Rhallick delivered a miracle offhand critical with a shortsword for 25 damage, really putting the hurt on the roper. Rubick ended up getting dropped unconcious (2 damage from instant death) but then the combined attacks of Koven (who just snapped the tendrils off himself each round then proceeded to beat ass again) and Hadrian finished off the monster. Daichot and the rogues finished off the guard drakes, and they ended the battle, pretty tore up. They quickly smashed the eggs, and took an accounting of their remaining resources: the wizard was out of spells, the barbarian had no rages left, the monk had blown through his Ki, Daichot had no spells left and Lay on Hands was empty. The rogues were both beat up, and no one had any HD left. They headed up the other tunnel and massacred the 8 kobolds there, interrogating one and determining there weren't any real threats left in the caves (garbage room, meat room, stirge room, fungi room) and so instead left the way they came in, heading back to Greenest.
They took a long rest that night in the countryside, and hit level 4!
The paladin took +1 STR & +1 CON, hitting +3 and +2 respectively, putting him up to 36 HP now. The barbarian took +1 STR & +1 DEX, giving him +4 and +2 now, capping his AC at 16. The wizard took the Observant feat, while Rhallick took Dual Wielder (now using dual rapiers), and Aligheri took Crossbow Expert. Hadrian went with a +2 DEX increase, bumping his attack and AC up.
Next they will begin the 2 month journey north along the sword coast!
Thanks for doing this, I'm mostly just posting here to encourage you to keep going. It's always great to read how other games play out within the same adventure.
Thanks for posting. I started the campaign log for two reasons:
1. I'm writing a Story Hour on Enworld for this campaign and I use this log as a reference (since I'm still introducing characters in the story).
2. I'd like to promote discussion about the adventure itself among other DMs. Since I don't get to talk to my players about the why's and how's, I'm desperate to talk about it. 
Nice log. I'm getting ready to run this adventure in a few weeks this gave me some insight.
Sounds like an awesome session!
I'm excited about next session--they haven't really had a lot of freedom yet (let's call it self-imposed railroading) because they were after the cultists so it was pretty much leading them by a nose-ring through the encounters. But episode 4 of the adventure is so much more open, with a much less strict schedule. Plus they have really grown in capabilities by level 4, so the encounters are starting to get really fun.
When they first encountered the roper, Daichot (paladin) was at the base of a wooden staircase surrounded by a cage with two angry guard drakes snapping at him visciously. Then the roper latched all four tentacles to the bars and tore the door off! (Actually the first tentacle got the door, but I then missed Daichot with the tendrils three times in a row, so I just said they all grabbed the door.) The imagery was awesome though; the screeching metal as the hinges gave way and the door flipping end over end into the darkess beyond the roper with a thunderous clang against the back wall. It was a great, "Okay, it just got real" moment. :P
Excellent stuff, many thanks
SESSION FIVE:
Newly level 4, the heroes return to Greenest. They are quickly regailed and showered with praise (and some "affection" by the local ladies) but they are pressed for time, and eager to stay on the trial of the cultists. Governor Nighthill tells them that Leosin (the monk they rescued) has secured horses for them, and bade them to head north and meet him in Elturel. At first a little puzzled why they weren't going west, they noticed the river on the map and figured out they would go by boat to get ahead of the caravan, which they discovered was bound for Castle Naerytar from documents in the late Frulam's chambers.
As they are now 4th level and complete heroes in the eyes of Greenest, I told them they could have pretty much whatever they wanted off the mundane equipment list. The paladin had a symbol of Torm grafted to the blade of his greatsword (holy symbol--emblem) as well as suit of plate mail. Both of the rogues grabbed some disguise and poison kits, and Aligheri successfully brewed a potion of healing (with no rules for it yet, I just had him roll Intelligence with herbalism proficiency). They asked about selling the jewelry (repaired with Mending) and decided to wait for a town that actually had money (and wasn't the likely owner of said jewelry) and they headed for Elturel.
There was one wilderness encounter during the 6 day trek, as they were breaking camp at dawn of the third day. A pair of ogres (medium encounter) tried to sneak up on the camp and ambush them. However Rhallick was on the last watch and easily spotted them, so there was no surprise round. The battle was quick and brutal; no one was even wounded, and after the rogues both took apart one of the ogres with double sneak attacks (assassin builds) the barbarian, paladin, and monk pounded apart the other ogre. Rubick however, was quite chagrined when his Phantasmal Force failed to land on a -3 INT saves ogre.
They arrived in Elturel without further incident, further supporting the Law of Random Encounters as explained by Vaarsuvius. They are directed to the inn where Onthaar (Order of the Gauntlet paladin) is staying and pretty quickly discover the jovial paladin having a grand time in the tavern and quickly welcoming the adventurers to drink with him. After a very long arm wrestling match with the barbarian (which Koven finally won), and a few other games, he bade the group to tell him of their adventures, which Rubick set upon doing C-3PO style for the whole tavern. With a natural 20, he actually earned the party two rooms and meal for the night. Hadrian was a bit impatient and being quite pushy about getting to business, and finally the paladin leaned in to him with a serious voice and said, "You're not going anywhere till morning anyway, so just try to enjoy yourself for a few hours--there will be plenty of time for deadly missions tomorrow!"
Later that evening, they finally had a serious meeting with Onthaar and Leosin. They share what they've found, and are tasked with taking a ship downriver and arriving at Baldur's Gate before the land-bound cultists, then signing on with the same caravan as the cultists, and following the treasure to it's destination. They reveal they are agents of the Harpers and Order of the Gauntlet, offering membership to the group. Daichot and Koven readily except signet rings with the Gauntlet, while Rubick joins the Harpers. Hadrian doesn't join either of them, and the rogues weren't even around. Rhallick was out trying to fence the jewelry they had, while Aligheri was keeping watch outside the inn in case they were being watched. Rhallick managed to get 900 gold pieces for the jewelry, incidentally.
The river trip took three days and passed without incident, and they found themselves in Baldur's Gate then. The group split up for the day for various tasks, and aimed to meet up at the Black Gate, and their contact from Onthaar, to see about hiring on with a caravan. Rubick predictably sought out the arcane collegium and set about obtaining a blank spellbook, and a collection of scrolls (4 mage armor, 1 knock). Hadrian went to the local monastery of his order and tried to persuade the monks there to take an active part against the cultists, but his oratory fell on "inwardly exploring" ears. Daichot ventured into the slums of the city (being an Urchin before adventuring, himself) and learned about a very hush-hush porter job that was coming up--and overnight push to move goods from the south gate to the north. Normally there were warehouses and staging and fees, but someone coming from the south was paying a retainer to the porters to just be ready to move goods quickly. Aligheri changed into his fine silks and slipped into the upper city (charlatan) and impersonated an exotic noble from Amn, seeking investors for a new trade route. He dropped a natural 20 on that attempt, and not only seduced several ladies of Baldur's Gate, but even walked away with a ruby the size of his palm, given willingly. Meanwhile Rhallick checked the local guilds for any contracts that might be worth pursuing, and was contracted out to kill a corrupt noble that was traveling north in the next caravan. The noble needed to be taken out publicly, but it needed to be legal, so a duel gone badly, or a believable accident. More later.
Rhallick and Koven went to the Outer City as well, meeting up with Daichot and quickly finding a seedy tavern with a fighting pit. Koven entered the pit and tried his hands at wrestling tournament, while Rhallick placed bets on him. He managed to find someone to wager 20 gold against Koven, who was promptly pinned when he rolled quite low. Rhallick quickly offered to go double-or-nothing on the next match, which Koven topped by dropping a natural 1 this time. There were many jokes about how everyone wanted to wrestle him now, even small children--but ultimately it just appeared he wasn't great at restrained fighting.
Desperate to keep from paying up, Rhallick offers to double down once more, showing the man a bag of gold as proof that he could pay, but just wanted to win his money back. Instead of 80 gold or nothing, the man said it felt like a hustle, and the bet would be 100 gold versus nothing if he still wanted the bet. Rhallick agreed, and Koven proceeded to pin the **** out of his last opponent. Amidst the boos (as it seemed like a hustle to everyone), Rhallick tried to pick the man's pocket and was caught quickly. Before the fight could escalate, Daichot, not realizing Rhallick tried to steal from him, got in between them and tried to peacefully calm everyone down. He dropped a massive roll and actually kept things from breaking into a fight, especially since no one was out any money at this point. The owner told them to get out and stay out.
Amidst all of his cons, Aligheri actually learned a lot about a half-dragon being spotted in a palanquin passing through the upper city, and Rubick spent several days researching everything he could find about the cult--confirming the identity of Rezmir through some obscure channels. Aligheri managed to brew some more healing potions (up to 4 total) as well as some basic poison, enough to dose three of his daggers. Once drawn from their sheath, the poison was good for one minute. I just decided to have the poison be DC 12 (8+INT+PROF) and give the poisoned condition if it worked. DMG needs to get here already.
They each hired on with different merchants; Koven was hired as a bodyguard, as was Hadrian. Daichot and Rubick were hired as sergeants, though Rubick was really just insurance against something that got past the regular guards. Aligheri was hired as a bodyguard too, but this was after showing the merchant how easily his stuff could be stolen (palming the merchant's ring and placing an ogre tooth in his pocket with sleight of hand). The merchant said he would pay the best thief he's ever met to make sure no one steals from him--and if something comes up missing he's blaming the rogue. Lastly was Rhallick, who hired on as a regular guard for the corrupt noble he was hired to kill.
After a tenday had passed, the caravan moved northeast across the field of the dead. When Rubick asked why it was called that, I said, "I don't know, why is it called that?" Taking the queue immediately, he told us a story about a war in an age past between orcs and goblins, which swept up a human city and led to the bloodiest war in the region, essentially wiping out all three cultures. I tossed him an inspiration and we moved on.
After 5 days they stopped at their first small town, and a group of loud and impressive-looking adventurers were at the tavern there, boasting of their exploits and managing to kill a basilisk. Everyone was suitably impressed, until the next morning, when Daichot (and the 5 guars under him) were fired by their stingy merchant, because he hired the adventurers. Daichot was fuming about it, and the merchant said he would continue to provide him with food and water for the journey, but no pay. The guards got nothing else, so Daichot said he would pay for them (about 25 gp of rations total each tenday!). Inspiration to him too.
Three days following, a pair of perytons swooped down on the carts near the party, killing two of the "adventurers" (actors with costume equipment) right away. Daichot agressively re-negotiated his employment before agreeing to help (he's a vengeance paladin, not a goody-two-shoes). But then the group took to fighting the beasts. It was a fairly tame encounter, with everyone hurling spears and firing hand crossbows at one (and the paladin and monk tearing up one badly with readied actions) while Rubick just put on the magic missile show cranking through second level slots like they were going out of style. Not to be outdone, Koven spent a turn tying a rope to a spear and trying to harpoon one of the creatures as it passed over, but another volley of magic missiles dropped the beast before they could see if it worked or not.
We stopped the session then--can't wait to play again in two weeks! (We started an hour late because we changed locations at the last minute.)
I actually brought my laptop this time, and was using Fantasy Grounds to through up a combat tracker, overland maps, and a party tracker on the 80" bigscreen in the conference room in my office.